BOOM! Studios Bill & Ted Save the Universe reaches five of five, and is totally perfectly brilliant. Everybody gets their moment, EVERYBODY HEALS, and Wyld Stallyns rock reality. I honestly can’t say enough about how good this is, as a licensed book and as a serial. Every creative element works in good-faith tandem, every important…
Monthly Marvel Muster: From Generations to Legacy
Welcome back to Monthly Marvel Muster, my roundup of everything I thought was interesting in Marvel Comics last month! September featured the last dying gasps of Secret Empire, the second round of Generations one-shots, and the much-hyped Marvel Legacy one-shot introducing Marvel’s latest line-wide rebranding.
BOOM! Bar: Watercolours! Anime Heirs! Girl Stuff!
Future-news: David F. Walker and Christopher Mooneyham have been paired on a new Planet of the Apes mini starting in January next year; all about that one mean guy with the big hat. Says Mooneyham, “[General] Ursus, to me, is just an old soldier, with no more wars to fight. He’s lost a lot, and…
BOOM! Bar: Rangers, Revenge, Regret
Hi-Fi Fight Club (BOOM! Box) develops its sweet and fresh central girl/girl romance, and starts to open up some of the secrets under the record shop. I don’t know how this story is gonna wrap up in only four issues, but it’s a very pretty book with an affirmational, welcoming perspective. We’ve got a longer feature…
BOOM! BAR: Hit Me With Nostalgia Sticks
This week, Misfit City (BOOM! Box) starts to get good. Reading the previous issues was frustrating—the characters don’t quite manage to blossom beyond their gimmicks (the research one, the one who smiles fiercely while she disparages you, the Kristy, the one who… lives in an old derelict tower? Is she a ghost? I don’t think so?…
Hasbro vs DC: Dawn of Litigation
At the tail end of last month, news broke that Hasbro was taking DC Comics to court over DC’s marketing of toys featuring a character named Bumblebee. This Bumblebee is distinct from the friendly Autobot everyone’s familiar with–she’s a Teen Titan, and definitely not a robot–but Hasbro has still taken the stance that the name…
BOOM! BAR: Let’s Get Gothic (Plus Robots! Murder! Roller Derby!)
Jane! Jane Eyre. It’s Jane Eyre time! In comics! Yessss. It’s a fat week for BOOM! actually, with ten releases all told. Seven are single issues; three are graphic novels (two of which are collections, actually). In the latter of the latter, Kurt Russell and Kurt Russell team up: Pak and Bayliss’ Big Trouble in Little…
Monthly Marvel Muster: Endings and Beginnings
Welcome back to the August edition Monthly Marvel Muster! Where I discuss the goings-on of the Marvel comics universe. August saw the long-awaited end of Secret Empire, and the first of the Generations one-shots featuring time-tossed team-ups between characters who’ve used the same code names at different times. No new ongoing series launched in August,…
Variant Covers 101
Variant covers! Those exciting, colourful often “rare” comic book covers that we all love (to hate). But what are variant covers? Why do they exist? Why does your local comic shop not have the one by your absolute favourite artist? And what does their existence mean in the greater comic book landscape? Here’s my primer…
The Mane Event: Lion Forge Pubwatch
For marginalized people, my queer enby self included, it is a constant struggle to see oneself in the massive sea of heteronormative bleached media. Today, when the world seems to actively rally against us, Lion Forge is here to shine a mirror on those who need it most and walk the walk of diversity. Both…
Image 25: Top Cow’s Matt Hawkins’ Full Trajectory
From some guy in a line to COO of a 25-year-old publishing imprint, Matt Hawkins saw the glory days of Image, and stayed around for the aftermath. There are plenty of interviews covering the Founding Fathers of Image’s early days as masters of their new domain. The twentieth anniversary interviews Jason Sacks carried out for…
Sci-Fi Cine: Cinematography 101
It’s in every movie, right in front of you. Sometimes it goes unnoticed. Other times it makes you go “Wow! Look at that shot!” It is what separates an epic film from shit. It is cinematography. Cinematography is the art of making motion pictures. Just like with a painting, a cinematographer (also called Director of…